Our dentist says our son's Wisdom teeth needs to come out & has scheduled the oral surgery about a month from now. I had mine out around age 23, but my older sister never had hers taken out.

The dentist is telling us that if they are not removed, the way that they are positioned in his mouth, that it will possibly break a couple of molars & crowd the rest of the teeth out of position.


Pros? Cons? Ideas?

I have had three of four wisdom teeth extracted and a fourth one is emerging after years of warnings by my dentist. The same thing was said. The reason I didn't get this one taken care of was due to needing an oral surgeon to cut through the gum tissue. No thanks.

I now believe that the dentists routinely tell us the worst-case scenario to scare us into compliance. If you want to be at the mercy of that fear-based mentality, then you'll do what you do. Does your son have other very crooked teeth? I know that some people are born with unusually crooked teeth but the average person is probably not at too great a risk and besides, you can always sit on it and monitor the way the tooth grows. Maybe go to a holistic dentist and get a second opinion...

Thanks banana who,

I guess we'll continue to do research on this one. I am very un-trusting of anything the medical/dental establishment tells us. The nearest holistic dentist is something like 100+ miles away and has a LONG waiting list.

I had all of mine removed as an adult and can say that it was a good move. I just wish that I had it done when I was younger. When I got older the wisdom teeth started to cause some pretty severe jaw pain.

Every body's mouth is different. Yeah, yeah, the dentists I believe say it for money! They told me and my son also. We both still have our wisdom teeth, I am 53, my son is 23.

My suggestion is to massage the gums around the wisdom teeth (which by the way take a long time to come in and it is a little sensitive in the process). Do you feel there is enough room? (Works like a charm to facilitate their coming through.)

Yes, that's the question - are your son's wisdom teeth in already or under the gum? Is the problem that there isn't space for them or is it that they may cause him problems down the road?

KidRaw Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, that's the question - are your son's wisdom
> teeth in already or under the gum? Is the problem
> that there isn't space for them or is it that they
> may cause him problems down the road?

Like most people's - they are still under the gums & 3 are laying horizontal. That is why they are concerned with impacting. Thing is, as I mentioned about my sister - hers never moved.

They stayed in one place, horizontal & never actually impacted the other molars. I'm tempted to put it off until necessary, but I don't know when "necessary" is.

In other words, how far can one put these things off until they start to do damage? Put it off until mouth pain occurs from pressing against the other teeth?

I just looked up photos of horizontal wisdom teeth on Google, and after looking at them, I have to say if it was my daughter, I'd probably opt to get it done. Ideally, I like to think that people shouldn't get their wisdom teeth out - they may come in handy one day if you loose one of your other teeth, they could fill the gap. Plus it's natural to leave them in, but those photos make me think they should come out because they're horizontal.

[images.search.yahoo.com]

Here's a good set of photos -

[www.prestige-dental-care.com.my]

Not telling you what to do - don't get it done because I said I would. I'm not a dentist, etc.....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2013 12:06PM by KidRaw.

A dentist started telling me 25+ years ago that I should have my wisdom teeth pulled. He said that someday they might cause problems. He ended up being right. What I'm getting at here is that in most cases it's a preventative measure. Get it over with when you're young just in case. No one ever pressured me to do it or gave me dire warnings if I didn't. It was a perfectly reasonable suggestion.


vermontnl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Every body's mouth is different. Yeah, yeah, the
> dentists I believe say it for money! They told me
> and my son also. We both still have our wisdom
> teeth, I am 53, my son is 23.
>
> My suggestion is to massage the gums around the
> wisdom teeth (which by the way take a long time to
> come in and it is a little sensitive in the
> process). Do you feel there is enough room?
> (Works like a charm to facilitate their coming
> through.)

Do you have insurance now? When a dentist first suggested it to me, not only did I have insurance, I also had plenty of time to get it done and plenty of energy for a speedy recovery. That's because I was a kid. When I HAD to have the surgery done, I was an adult with no dental insurance who could not afford to take time from work or to pay the bill. I got it done and paid in full, but I sure wished that I had gotten it over with when I was a kid.

veganjuice Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> KidRaw Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Yes, that's the question - are your son's
> wisdom
> > teeth in already or under the gum? Is the
> problem
> > that there isn't space for them or is it that
> they
> > may cause him problems down the road?
>
> Like most people's - they are still under the gums
> & 3 are laying horizontal. That is why they are
> concerned with impacting. Thing is, as I mentioned
> about my sister - hers never moved.
>
> They stayed in one place, horizontal & never
> actually impacted the other molars. I'm tempted to
> put it off until necessary, but I don't know when
> "necessary" is.
>
> In other words, how far can one put these things
> off until they start to do damage? Put it off
> until mouth pain occurs from pressing against the
> other teeth?

On second through - after seeing this article and then looking up on Google - maybe he shouldn't get dental surgery done --

Local Man Dies After Routine Dental Surgery In California

[pittsburgh.cbslocal.com]

It looks like it happens all the time - routine dental surgery turns into death -

[search.yahoo.com]

It's the anesthesia if you ask me.

Of course it's the anesthesia! Anytime you decide to go under, it can be quite risky. I never got put under for any of my dental procedures.

The other risk is infection. If you go rooting around in there, cutting, drilling, whatever, you run the risk of toxins remaining, getting stirred up, etc.

Oh, and I don't have the time this very second but what about the dentist who didn't properly wash his utensils and gave HIV and Hep C to a patient (and there are possibly 7,000 others at risk)?

Had them all out at one time during my early 20's, it needed to be done. I was in an agony of pain, not enough room in my mouth for all those big ole pearly whites.
I personally wouldn't have had it done until I saw a need. Surely a mouth would send a clear message that it was neccessary and if no message is received then... why not wait and see?

We're still not sure on this. We've done a lot of online research, and as you might image the opinions are all over the place.

Basically, at most of the medical/dental websites, there is a long list of why it should be done right away, and a list of dire consequences if you put it off. Talk about motivating through the use of fear...

Other sites list personal experiences/testimony of why people decided to put it off & what they had to endure later on down the road. At this point we're leaning towards not going through with it right now, maybe 65/35%.

veganjuice,

Risk/benefit assessment time. Had my wisdom teeth out in my late teens; I know my jaw would be really messed up if I hadn't and they'd decided to emerge. Wisdom teeth are vestigial bone masses that we don't need. The risk of problems later in life--to say nothing of the greater difficulty in healing and complications arising if the surgery is done in middle age--IMO outweigh the minimal risks from the procedure done at the typcial age. Yeah, the teeth may never emerge and may not cause problems, but if they do, oh boy.

Just my two cents.

I also want to say that when I see those x-ray photos I posted above of the horizontal wisdom teeth laying on their sides, I just think - they need to go. And also it may be a good time to get them out when you or he can afford to instead of waiting until who knows what circumstances will be in play - maybe he'll be stranded on a desert island and there won't be a dentist

Well, all is over now. He decided to go through with the surgery. Things sure have changed since 25 yrs ago when I had mine removed - as you might well expect.

For one thing, he had absolutely NO swelling, very minimal pain, and you can't hardly even see any incisions where they did the work.

The Oral surgeon that removed mine must have use a hacksaw & chisel, because my jaw was swelled up 2x normal, and I had very bad pain.

So, that is all behind us now - Thank God.

Tamukha Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> veganjuice,
>
> Risk/benefit assessment time. Had my wisdom teeth
> out in my late teens; I know my jaw would be
> really messed up if I hadn't and they'd decided to
> emerge. Wisdom teeth are vestigial bone masses
> that we don't need. The risk of problems later in
> life--to say nothing of the greater difficulty in
> healing and complications arising if the surgery
> is done in middle age--IMO outweigh the minimal
> risks from the procedure done at the typcial age.
> Yeah, the teeth may never emerge and may not cause
> problems, but if they do, oh boy.
>
> Just my two cents.


Wisdom teeth are normal. Why do we all get them if they are not needed? Who told you that? Demented experts also tell us that the male foreskin is some kind of non-needed vestigial thing that should be ablated at birth. I mean, really...

It is true that many people have problems with their wisdom teeth, but countless people have problems with their other teeth, too, but I don't see anybody having them all yanked at an early age "just in case".

It's hard not to see that Africans and some south Asians have the most beautiful teeth imaginable and I conclude that's due to their high exposure to the sun (causing plenty of Vitamin D formation in their bodies). The rest of us are declining in health quickly and the teeth seem to be the first place it shows. Of course after living in temperate climates for a couple of generations, their teeth will decline also, in all likelihood.

I am late middle aged and have 3 perfect wisdom teeth. One went rotten only a few years ago. The other 3 are well nigh perfect in every sense -placement, size, intactness. I am so grateful that my mother never forced me to have them pulled. (Thanks, Mum, wherever you are.)

banana who Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have had three of four wisdom teeth extracted
> and a fourth one is emerging after years of
> warnings by my dentist. The same thing was said.
> The reason I didn't get this one taken care of was
> due to needing an oral surgeon to cut through the
> gum tissue. No thanks.
>
> I now believe that the dentists routinely tell us
> the worst-case scenario to scare us into
> compliance. If you want to be at the mercy of that
> fear-based mentality, then you'll do what you do.
> Does your son have other very crooked teeth? I
> know that some people are born with unusually
> crooked teeth but the average person is probably
> not at too great a risk and besides, you can
> always sit on it and monitor the way the tooth
> grows. Maybe go to a holistic dentist and get a
> second opinion...

A voice of reason! I saw a program on teevee where they revealed that countless dentists attend a course where they learn how to scare the sht out of patients and drum up more business for themselves.

Let's have common sense solutions to our problems.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2013 08:52PM by Horsea.